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Ask Marilyn: Is Digital Media Causing News Myopia?

John Stratton of Baltimore, Maryland, writes:

Marilyn: When reading a print newspaper, one often sees articles that otherwise would not appear when reading a newspaper digitally. I think that the increasing reading of digital news is contributing toward a more myopic society, in which people read only what they want to read, and in which they tend to read articles that reinforce their own opinions, to the exclusion of other opinions. What do you think? Marilyn responds:

I agree, of course! And unless readers ask their content providers for (or search for, etc.) many categories of news and views, such as world news, political commentary, lifestyle pieces, editorials, science news, etc., they won't see them at all. I get news from many sources, as most people do, but I've found that when I look through my daily newspaper, I spend most of my time reading articles that it never would have occurred to me to think about!